Saving space in C++ using pointers

The only thing I can think of suggesting is making those variables public parts of a class. Then you could either make that class a singleton or have them as static variables (or both, really).

Following the singleton route, you should then be able to control creation and destruction:

int main()
{
GlobalVariableContainer *gvc = new GlobalVariableContainer;
//anything that might access the global variable container
delete gvc;
}

Admittedly the singleton would be a little dirty, having to allow public constructors, but the Enginuity articles by Richard Fine provide a useful little template for this kind of thing. The above example would force the creation of that memory on the heap, and only one pointer would be used. To access a variable from any file with the header included, you would then use something like:

int i = GlobalVariableContainer::Get().some_variable;

Admittedly, this means acquiring a reference everytime you want to access a variable, but if it gets called often enough then I think the cpu should cache it anyway, and the chances are compilers might have some optimisation wizardry to help with this kind of thing.

Be warned, I''m self taught, and have a very blundering "if it works, keep doing it" approach, so all of the above may be complete nonsense. Good luck in any case.

Singleton is overkill as is using pointers. Just use the easiest thing now and if it breaks you''ll have to change it later. But if you''re having to make hundreds of variables public then you have some design issues to say the least.

quote:

---

Original post by antareus
Singleton is overkill as is using pointers. Just use the easiest thing now and if it breaks you''ll have to change it later. But if you''re having to make hundreds of variables public then you have some design issues to say the least.

---

Yeah, but I don''t think the person that was suggesting singletons was really saying you should use them.

thanks for the thoughts,

quote:

---

The only thing I can think of suggesting is making those variables public parts of a class

---

Thats the only thing I''ve come up with so far although the singleton thing might be a step further than I was working on...

quote:

---

But if you''re having to make hundreds of variables public then you have some design issues to say the least.

---

I''m well aware that it aint clean design, and really aint my choice... but its carrying on from another programmer working in another language, I can only make do with what I''m given

Jack